


All In Your Head

by Watchtower (atbucud)



Series: Superhero Soulmate AU [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Justice League - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Gen, Mentioned Alfred Pennyworth, Mentioned Joker (DCU), Originally Posted on Tumblr, Reader-Insert, Scarecrow's Fear Toxin (DCU), Tumblr: watchtower-feed, Watchtower: Superhero Soulmate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:07:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26103166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atbucud/pseuds/Watchtower
Summary: When you live in a world full of superheroes, there are worst things than meta human villains, invading aliens, and psychotic clowns. One of them is having a soulmate.Some say it’s better because your other half is easier to find, but they’re not the one who has a hero or a villain for a soulmate. You do.Your soulmate is Batman.
Relationships: Bruce Wayne/Reader, Bruce Wayne/You
Series: Superhero Soulmate AU [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1328027
Comments: 26
Kudos: 154





	1. Chapter 1

"Did you save them?“ you stare out the glass walls as you watch the Earth in its own gravity.

Batman pulls down his cowl, as he stands beside you as Bruce Wayne, "I did.”

You let out a heavy breath and close your eyes with relief at his news. “Good. I’m glad they’re okay.”

Bruce drops his cowl and lets the ethereal air change his armor into a nice expensive suit. He didn’t tell you about Superman and his soulmate losing their link. He didn’t want to burden you with the possibility that what you shared could disappear one day. Because, he’d never admit it, but it scared him.

You turn to him and snicker, “You’re not at work, Bruce. You can afford to wear whatever you want in your dreams.” The air shifts around Bruce’s body and changes his suit into a Batman onesie pajama.

He raises an eyebrow and gives you a sarcastic smirk, “Comfy.”

You muffle your laughter with your hand before the air shifts around Bruce again until he’s wearing workout pants and a very fitted tank top. It was your turn to give a sarcastic smirk.

He grins but decides to change the conversation before you have another wardrobe battle in your dreamscape. After all, everything is possible here.

"Why are we in the Watchtower?“ he asks you.

"I tried to replicate what you showed me last time. It seems like a beautiful place, Bruce. A place so out of reach,” he takes your hand and you smile when he squeezes it, “but not for me.”

"No,“ he smiles and gazes out the window with you. "I could never run away from you.”

Most of your dreams together are spent like this. Some dreams were filled with silence and comfort. There were also nightmares you dealt with together, his hand in yours. And other times Bruce consulted you about his work.

He’s told you about his life, his dreams, and his past. He showed you memories of Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, Cassandra, Barbara, Stephanie and Alfred, even Selina and Talia.

It was a tough decision for him to make in the beginning. He didn’t trust his subconscious to keep his secrets hidden. But he trusts you.

In return, you showed him yours. Your life. Your dreams. And your love. You showed him what life was like before you met him.

For a long time you believed that you didn’t have a link. You had no timer, no tracker, no physical, emotional, or conscious link. All you were left to assume was a subconscious link but you were lonely in your dreams. You even tried sleeping during the day in case your soulmate lived in a different time zone.

But your dreams were still only your own.

Until, of course, one unusual night when you dreamed yourself in a dark alleyway. The air was heavy and the mood was sinister. You could feel that something wrong was about to happen.

And then it played out right before your eyes. The family of three walking in the dark. The petty thief aiming his gun. The pearls falling to the floor as the sewers seeped the draining blood of two bodies.

The bodies of parents who loved Gotham as much as they loved their own child. Their child, oh god, who knelt beside his parents as the Gotham late night train muffled his desperate cry.

You shakily took a step back and noticed that someone had been standing beside you the whole time. He loomed tall, dressed in all black with pointed ears and a cape.

You held your breath as the dream finally made sense. It wasn’t your dream. It was your soulmate’s nightmare.

"Y-you’re… Bruce Wayne.“


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce is tired

You held your breath as the dream finally made sense. It wasn’t your dream. It was your soulmate’s nightmare.

"Y-you’re… Bruce Wayne.“

You’re in the Watchtower again when Bruce shows up through the zeta tube. He takes one quick look at the place and quickly changes the environment to a seaside shore in a tropical island. You stare up at the starry skyline and count a few shooting stars.

You smirk and a cocktail materializes in Bruce’s hand. “You look tired.” He grunts in response before taking the whole drink in one go. He changed out of his bat suit and into a pair of bright blue board shorts. “More tired than normal.”

Bruce stands next to you and stares straight at the horizon where the night sky and the dark ocean meet. The two of you stare out in silence as you listen to the waves softly reaching the sand. You can hear Bruce try to even his breathing with every crash and you already know something is gravely wrong.

“It’s Wonder Woman,” he finally says. You turn to him but his eyes don’t meet yours, still staring straight ahead. “She’s missing.”

Your eyes widen. “Someone like her doesn’t just go missing, Bruce,” you blurt out immediately.

He shuts his eyes and rubs his eyelid with his fingers. “I know.”

Bruce turned away from the horizon, donning his suit back on. When you turn around, you’re back in the Watchtower, in the main hall with the large meeting table set up. The rest of the League is sitting around in mid-action as if time had stopped. “After we saved Jason’s soulmate, Wonder Woman returned to her quarters early and skipped the mission debriefing.” You follow behind Bruce as he takes up his seat at the table.

Just as quickly, everyone is moving again.

“That’s the third one this month,” Aquaman says while addressing everyone at the table. He holds out the fingers in his hand, “Physical empathy, tracker, and timer.”

“And those are just the ones we know of,” Hawkgirl responds with her arms crossed. “We should assume he’s gotten hold of other soulmate links as well.”

“Collecting one of each link,” adds Martian Manhunter.

“But it’s not just anyone’s link,” Green Arrow speaks up. “Think about it. He could easily take any civilian’s link under our radar but he’s targeting League members.” 

“He’s targeting superhero soulmates,” supplies Red Arrow.

You’re surprised when Batman speaks up, almost forgetting that he’s actively replaying the debriefing so he can analyze all of the information again. “The Red Hood doesn’t have powers.”

Black Canary responds to him, “But Jason came back from the dead. He’s special in that regard.”

“For now, it’s safer to assume, meta, human, or alien, we are all targets,” says Superman.

Red Arrow quickly interjects, “There are still other questions we need to answer like why is he doing this and how.“

Black Canary pulls up a holographic feed of Black Mask and projects it in front of everyone. “We couldn’t get any new information from Black Mask. Just that Luthor’s paying anyone who’ll bring him a hero’s soulmate.” 

She takes a breath as the video plays. They all watch as Batman speaks to him in the video. She closes it once it’s done. “According to him, Lex Luthor is also offering his services to anyone who wants to get rid of their links. Black Mask had a physical link.”

“Superman, do you know how Luthor erased your link?” Martian Manhunter asked.

You look at Superman as he stares down at the table. Your voice quickly stops the recollection, “Poor Clark. This must be so hard on him.”

Bruce wonders if he should tell you about Black Mask killing his soulmate right after the link was erased. Before it would come up in his subconscious, he quickly starts up the meeting again.

Superman looks up and speaks with one palm extending out to the table, “I asked her but she said she was unconscious the whole time. She only realized her link was gone when we were back here at the tower.”

A moment of silence circulated around the table as the League members pondered on their own thoughts. You almost think that time has stopped again but you can see the crease around Bruce’s mouth tensing as each second goes by.

It was Captain Marvel who breaks the silence, “Dr. Fate, Zatanna, do you have any idea how Luthor could be doing this?” The people around the table looked at Captain Marvel with raised brows. “I mean, the soulmate link is closer to magic than science, and isn’t that your specialty?”

“Hmm,” says Zatanna, “It’s not really my kind of magic. I’m guessing it’s not like yours either. The legend of soulmates has always been tied to older magic. Ancient.”

Everyone at the table slowly turns to Dr. Fate who has his hands folded on the table and his eyes still fixed at Zatanna.

“Why isn’t he answering,” you whisper. 

Bruce grits his teeth and the rest of the table suddenly disperses into the air. “Exactly my thought.”

“What?” you speak out, “What happened then?”

“Something sent off the alarms in the Watchtower. It was coming from Wonder Woman’s room,” Bruce takes off his scowl as he stands up and faces you, “when we got there, she was gone.” Bruce crosses his arms and leans on the table. He looks down, thinking, “No break-in. No struggle.”

“As if she just banished?” Bruce nods. “But Wonder Woman can’t teleport right. Did she fly out? Can she even survive in space?”

“She can,” he smiles at you, amused. “But her windows didn’t open.”

“This can’t be good.”

“Hn. You’re telling me.” Suddenly both the watchtower and the tropical beach disperses, surrounding you and Bruce with nothing but darkness. “Luthor’s kidnapping soulmates, taking away their links, and we don’t know how or why he’s doing it. Dr. Fate obviously knows something but he’s not telling the League. Now every League member is looking out for their soulmates, making sure they’re safe, while Wonder Woman just vanishes into thin air. Worst of all, I can’t get any kind of information on the Fate Sisters who are responsible for these links and who might have all the answers we’re looking for. But they’re not talking to anyone who’s either a hero or a villain.” 

Those are the most words Bruce has ever strung together in one long speech. His frustration has finally reached its peak and it’s affecting his whole composure. Missing a central figure in the team in the middle of this crisis is one thing but having every member dispersed on their own personal mission is another blow.

But even you can feel the extra burden weighing on Bruce is due to the fact that you could be Luthor’s next target. That’s why he’s here. That’s why he showed you how the team reacted.

No one knows about your link with Bruce. Neither of you even knew you had it until a few months ago. The subconscious link is one of the, if not the most, private links there is. Only the two of you know you have it.

You reach out and hold Bruce’s face in your hands. He holds onto them and looks back at you. He looks so tired and you wish he didn’t have to go. “I’m not going anywhere so you go and save her.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Bruce are trapped in a nightmare

No one knows about your link with Bruce. Neither of you even knew you had it until a few months ago. The subconscious link is one of the, if not the most, private links there is. Only the two of you know you have it.

You reach out and hold Bruce’s face in your hands. He holds onto them and looks back at you. He looks so tired and you wish he didn’t have to go. “I’m not going anywhere so you go and save her.” 

Just like you promised, you stayed asleep. He left you in that space of darkness and you stood in it for another minute before shifting the space into the Wayne Manor. You always walked in through the front door because the Manor always felt like such a sacred space for Bruce.

When you were with him, you would often see his family, the boys running around through the corridors and hallways, sometimes in their suits or in civilian clothing. Bruce would replay the moments he spent with them, watching TV, eating dinner, training, or even just sitting around and telling each other about their days.

Those were the best moments. They deserve more of those, not what Bruce mostly shows you, which are the fights, the yelling, the arguments, and the silent crying. He relives these moments with you instantly because he almost can’t do them by himself anymore.

“Sometimes when I’m standing in front of them and it gets too much, I forget myself and I just grab at your hand like you’re there beside me,” he said.

You stare at your hand and wish Bruce was there holding it tightly like he always does. On some occasions, Bruce thinks of someone he hasn’t seen for days and desperately misses. You’ve only seen him do it twice. Once with Jason and the other with Damian when they fought and he stayed with his mother for months.

You want to think about Bruce, standing here with you but you don’t. Neither of you does that because it feels like cheating. Your imagination could never live up to the real.

You walk along the hall and lean against the doorframe that leads into the study. There was one moment when Bruce missed his parents so badly that he relived the memory of when he annoyed his father until he would throw a ball with him in the garden. You watched, amused, as Bruce shifted himself into his younger self. A child with bright blue eyes and always smiling from ear to ear, so full of mirth.

But now the manor is completely empty.

You walk beside its walls like a ghost that can’t touch anything. 

You walk up the stairs and down the long corridors until you reach Bruce’s room. You find it the same way the two of you left it from the other night, with pillows on the floor, sheets disheveled, and a broken lamp tucked away in the corner.

You smile as you walk forward and fall face down onto Bruce’s bed. The sheets don’t smell like anything and it’s exactly how Bruce smells. After honing his sense of smell beyond human ability, he’s become sensitive to everything. When he’s dreaming he shuts off all of his senses and relaxes.

You lie there for an hour, maybe less or more, you don’t know. Time is the most unstable factor in the dreamscape. You and Bruce have had to set up the most aggressive alarms just so the two of you won’t sleep away a whole day together. Again.

You bring your knees closer to your chest, emulating the sudden constricting hold wrapping around your torso. You grip the sheets in your hands until your knuckles are white and you let horrific sobs wrack through your body. You cry loudly inside the empty bedroom.

You cry until your subconscious couldn’t produce any more tears and it feels like your throat has closed up.

Finally, you get up and go down to the cave, walking in through the old grandfather in the study. You climb down the stairs as slow as you can and focus so that the dream won’t add more steps. You count the number Bruce has given you. When you reach the landing, you stare out at the illuminated cave and the parts that are still shrouded in darkness.

You walk past the glass displays that store their old costumes, Dick’s, Jason’s, Tim’s, Cass’, and Damian’s, until you reach the computer. You place yourself in front of the monitors, tucking your legs underneath you as you sit in a chair almost twice your size, and wrap yourself in a blanket you and Bruce shared on other nights when you would just sit and talk. You turn on the computer and let it boot up as if you’re actually there and not sleeping in your bedroom.

But you don’t touch the mouse or the keyboard. Instead, your mind forces the monitor to show you videos and clips of what Bruce could be doing right now. He might be infiltrating a prison cell hidden in the subbasement of a secret government building, a hidden island in the Pacific Ocean, or an illegal lab that experiments on soulmates and metas.

You watch one of the screens that’s showing Batman crawling inside a long air vent. He stops in front of a set of grills and looks in. You can see beds with two that are occupied, some desks and cabinets, a tall man in the middle of the room, and the biggest figure in the room stands between him and the door.

You lean in close to the monitor as you watch Bruce unscrew the grills. You watch as golden smoke rises up to the ceiling, making Bruce pause for a brief second. You still have the image of it in your head when suddenly the woman on one of the beds leaps at the tall figure. 

Bruce is already through the vent and scaling along the walls when you realize that was Wonder Woman. She’s shaking, one hand clinging onto the table to stand upright. You gasp when the huge figure smashes her into the ground.

You watch the rest of the scene play out, inching closer and closer. You shout out Bruce’s name when you see Scarecrow come up behind him and injects him. You finally breathe better when nothing happens and you relax more as you watch them escape.

Suddenly, the monitors shut down and the lights around the outer walls of the cave turn off one by one, and then the whole cave is drowned in darkness. It takes a long second before the soft glow of the emergency lights light up the platform.

You definitely didn’t do that.

You hear groaning behind you and jump off the chair as you turn around. There on the medical table, Bruce is sitting up and looking around the cave frantically, as if he doesn’t recognize the place. He looks frightened and weak, standing up too quickly and staggering toward you. “Where’s Alfred?”

You quickly go to his aid. He wraps an arm around your shoulder as you help him stand. “He was just here,” he mumbles, turning his head to look around the platform. “He was just… testing me for poisons.”

“Poisons?” you gasp. Scarecrow’s mask immediately springs back into your mind. “I thought that was nothing. I thought you were fine. You were…” you suddenly realize that what you saw on the monitor wasn’t just your imagination. It was Bruce’s memories.

“Bruce, you’re asleep now.”

“I’m not,” he protests. “I’m in the Batcave. I was with Alfred but you were…”

“No, Bruce,” you whisper, almost pleading. “You’re asleep.” Something’s definitely wrong. Bruce has always had the better handle on your link, always better at controlling the dreamscape and filtering his subconscious. Lucid dreaming is still a skill you have a hard time nurturing but Bruce handles it with talent.

“B-Bruce…” you both turn at the sound of somebody else’s voice softly echoing in the cave. He sounds out of breath and gurgling. It’s Robin. Jason. He’s holding his side with both of his hands while blood is seeping between his fingers.

“Oh my god,” you whisper.

His face is badly bruised. His mask is torn in half and his eye is swollen. He coughs out blood and you feel Bruce’s fingers digging into your shoulder. “H-help…”

As Jason falls, Bruce drags himself away from you and kneels right beside Jason. His hands are badly shaking over Jason’s still body, so afraid to touch him. “No. Not again. Late again,” you hear him say. His thoughts are starting to filter out of his own head and into both of yours.

You can hear the chaos as different voices fill the dream. Bruce is devastated by the death of Jason but Batman is telling him it’s not real. You can hear an eerie whispering sound coming from him as he rocks his body in shock over Jason’s body.

“It’s the toxin. It’s the toxin. It’s the toxin.” 

You muster the courage to take the steps toward Bruce and Jason. You flinch at the pale boy’s face and then pry your eyes away. You kneel down beside Bruce and touch his shoulder. You wait until he turns to you, “Bruce, please.” You hold his face in your hands, forcing him to look into your eyes. “That’s not Jason.”

Bruce whimpers and closes his eyes. He holds your hands and presses them harder against his cheeks as the tears start to come. “Not real,” he whispers like a mantra.

Metal skidding on the platform breaks both of your concentration. Barbara is rushing onto the platform, frantically turning the wheels of her wheelchair until she skids to a stop in front of you.

“Bruce!” she yells out and then there’s the sound of a door slamming and Barbara turns around in fear. 

You follow her gaze that’s directed somewhere off the platform. It’s all black. Then there’s a gunshot and Barbara goes limp in her wheelchair, her head hanging on one side with a bullet hole in her forehead.

You’re screaming. Barbara’s eyes are wide open. You know this scene. You’ve seen it. You know who’s in the darkness. “Bruce, you need to calm down,” you whimper desperately. “You’re going to–”

Maniacal laughter fills every crevice and every crack of the cave. You look around the ceiling, desperately clinging onto Bruce’s cape. A voice boom out from the darkness, “Ello Batsy!”

Your whole body goes rigid as he steps out from the shadows, one leg first like an entertainer coming through the curtain. His pale white face stands out against the darkness. He’s grinning wildly. “Been a while.”

You choke down a whimper and his face quickly turns to you. “Oooooh. What do we have here?” He steps closer to the two of you. “Looks like you got yourself a soulmate, Batsy. And here I was thinking I’m the one.” Joker leans close to your face and glares at you with his eyebrows touching. 

You prepare yourself to start inching back but then he grabs you by the throat and lifts you off the floor. The force is so strong that Bruce falls on his back with his hands bracing him. Scarecrow’s fear toxin has been completely absorbed by his system and he’s run out of control in the dreamscape. For the first time that you’ve been with him, Bruce is completely incapacitated with fear.

You choke as the bony fingers of the madman dig into your skin. It hurts and you can’t breathe. Everything suddenly feels so real.

The Joker laughs as you choke.

“No…” Bruce whispers, finally finding some semblance of his own voice. But it’s so low and broken. He sounds like a boy. “No. Please.”

You want this dream to be over. You try to claw at the Joker’s hands. He laughs in your face and the next thing you hear is a bone crack.

The Joker lets you go and you lie there unable to move. This is wrong. You’re supposed to wake up. You’re supposed to leave.

You’re on the floor with your bent neck and your head lying on the side, facing Bruce. He’s staring at you with wide eyes and his mouth is open. He drags his knees close to you and you can see his whole body shaking as he leans down. “No… no…”

Gently he picks you up to hold you in his arms. He’s staring down at your face, watching the stillness and pale skin. His subconscious is too strong and you feel like you’re dead because he truly believes it.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

You can feel it too. You can actually feel the rigor mortis kicking in and it’s scaring you. Is this how it feels to die?

Bruce’s head hangs low and you see the tears fall before feeling their warmth on your skin.

“Not you too… Please, not you…”

You want to whimper. You want to cry. You just want this to be over. You have got to be stronger than Bruce. You have to block out his thoughts and overpower him.

You will yourself to concentrate until you can move a single finger. Then another. Until you can move one hand. That’s all you need. Slowly, you lift it to touch his face and his eyes widen. He grabs your hand and clasps it while he stares at you with furrowed brows.

“Y-you’re right, Bruce,” you struggle to say, slowly feeling his hold on the dreamscape crumble. “I’m not real. None of this is.” Bruce shakes his head. “Please… just wake up.”

You shut your eyes and force the dreamscape to completely obliterate.

Bruce is sweating and raking in large breaths at a time when he wakes up on the medical table. Only some time has passed. Alfred is there with a sad expression on his face as the monitor’s angry blue lights frame his silhouette.

Bruce focuses his eyes on the monitor and finds a graph with greatly varying spikes connected to different types of chemicals. “W-what just…” he breathes out.

“Master Bruce,” Alfred says gently, “It appears to be an alteration of Scarecrow’s fear toxin.”

Bruce groans as he drops down from the table, “What kind of alteration?”

Alfred doesn’t answer him right away. Instead, he stares at Bruce and from the way he looks, he might already know, “It’s a lot milder. Mild enough to not affect your consciousness…” he let his words hang as he watches the slow recognition dawn on Bruce’s face. “And only affect you while you’re unconscious.”

Bruce clenches his fists and suddenly finds it hard to swallow.

“They know.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce hasn't seen you in weeks

_“Master Bruce,” Alfred says gently, “It appears to be an alteration of Scarecrow’s fear toxin.”_

_Bruce groans as he drops down from the table, “What kind of alteration?”_

_Alfred doesn’t answer him right away. Instead, he stares at Bruce and from the way he looks, he might already know, “It’s a lot milder. Mild enough to not affect your consciousness…” he let his words hang as he watches the slow recognition dawn on Bruce’s face. “And only affect you while you’re unconscious.”_

_Bruce clenches his fists and suddenly finds it hard to swallow._

_“They know.”_

Bruce tried his best to avoid sleeping for the next two weeks until the fear toxin was completely out of his system. Even then, he doesn’t see you in his dreams for almost a month. He doesn’t think it’s because you’re not sleeping. His best guess is that you bought link blockers from the black market and took them.

Incredibly irresponsible but a smart move. If you had been in the dreamscape with Bruce’s subconscious, you would have died a thousand different ways in the hands of a different villain every night. Just like he did.

Bruce Wayne can handle his own death. He’s prepared himself for it before he first took up the mantle. He visualizes it every night and he always dies alone.

He doesn’t want the people he cares about to get hurt. Not just physically. He doesn’t want anyone to see him die and have to carry that image throughout their lives. He loves his parents but sometimes he wishes he would stop seeing their faces in the darkness. He wishes he didn’t have to live through it over and over again, every single night.

The alley light flickers over their dead bodies and Bruce looks up at the sight of a shadow walking into the light. He knows it’s not you. He knows the you in front of him was made by his own subconscious. A perversion.

You kneel down, your bare knees crunching the gravel that pokes at your skin, but you’re smiling as if it doesn’t hurt. As if his parents aren’t dead behind you.

You touch him, your palms pressing against his cheeks and lifting his face to look at you. To turn away from the bodies and only look into your eyes. Gentle and warm unlike the cold and stench of Crime Alley.

Your thumb brushes his cheekbones and it makes him weak. Bruce wishes this made him sick to his stomach but he misses you so much he lets this poor copy of you pull him into an embrace.

Its arms cling around his neck. It snuggles its nose just below his ear. One of its hands cup the back of his head and tangle its fingers in his hair. Mimicking everything you do, exactly as you do it when you embrace him. A perfect replica of everything Bruce remembers about your touch.

It’s only when Bruce wakes up that he feels the repulsion of what he’s done.

One night, after a difficult mission with the League that brought them no closer to uncovering more of Luthor’s plans, Bruce enters the dreamscape and finds himself in the main hall of the Watchtower.

He wonders if he accidentally went through the zeta tube instead of his bedroom door. But then he sees you staring out the window. He tries to make you go away and you feel the push of his subconscious.

You turn around and stare at him. Bruce is startled, one foot raised in midstep like a burglar caught red-handed. You narrow your eyes at him.

“You’ve been spending your nights with a fake me.”

You didn’t need to hear the answer because the guilt already made its way around the creases of Bruce’s face. 

“We promised.”

Bruce walks toward you slowly. He takes your hand in his and kisses the back of it. “Forgive me.”

You watch Bruce hide his face from you, bowing down before you. You gently retrieve your hand and hold his cheeks in your palms. As you lift his head, you look at him with your brows furrowed.

“Have you been lonely?” you ask. Bruce closes his eyes and presses against your touch. You pull him closer until you can hide your face in his chest, hiding the creases of your own brows. “I’m sorry, too.”

Your soulmate lifts your head from his chest and kisses you.

You have always expected the things in the dreamscape to be surreal, after all, they only resemble what could be. But whenever you kiss, it feels so warm and all-consuming that you know in your heart this is what Bruce’s kiss tastes like in the waking world.

He pulls away and gives himself just enough space to look at you. To memorize every contour, every bump, every sunken skin on your face. Bruce knows his subconscious could never replicate your perfection.

You smile at Bruce and then suddenly grab hold of his cheeks too quickly, making a slapping sound in the dreamscape. 

“Bruce! I have good news. Great news!”

While Bruce mimics your wide eyes, yours from excitement, his from your pseudo-slap, you alter the Watchtower lobby into what looks like a cramped temple with small Greek columns. 

“You went to the Fates,” Bruce assumes immediately. He’s frowning.

Despite his growing fondness for you and your link, Bruce detests the whole soulmate business and the Fate sisters. He believes anyone who’s not willing to cooperate with the Justice League has something sinister to hide.

“I didn’t plan on going to them,” you turn to your soulmate with a sheepish look and playful smile, knowing what you’re about to say is much worse. “I was at the black market–” Bruce knows but just hearing your confession made him narrow his eyes. “But you wouldn’t believe who I met there–”

An apparition of you enters the small temple, following another figure who places an offering at the atrium and calls out to the Fates.

“That’s Lex Luthor’s soulmate.”

Bruce almost can’t believe what you’re saying. He doesn’t understand why you’re smiling. “Y/N–”

“It’s not what you think,” because you already know exactly what he’s suggesting. Being in each other’s subconscious has made both of you more sensitive to each other’s tells. “His soulmate wants to helps us, Bruce.”

“How do you know she’s Luthor’s soulmate.”

“Because she knows who I am,” Bruce narrows his eyes, trying to think deeply while listening to you. “They have a memory link, one of the rarest. It plants the soulmate into someone’s memories so it feels like they’ve been together their whole lives. One of the memories she was in was when Luthor found out about our link and hired Scarecrow to make your fear toxin.”

Silence suddenly filled the dreamscape and all figures have stopped. Even you and Bruce. You haven’t talked about your last night together. Everything that transpired. Haunting memories relived. You dying.

You’re startled by the hand that holds you. Bruce squeezes your hand until you look him in the eyes. His gaze is gentle. His eyes are almost glistening.

“Luthor could have put her up to this,” he says softly.

“He didn’t.”

“What makes you so sure, Y/N?”

Bruce only ever calls you by your first name when he’s being his most affectionate. When you’re hiding in your whispers, under the sheets, or crying to wakefulness. He says it now because Bruce Wayne is genuinely fearful of what might happen to you.

“Because I met her, Bruce.” Before he could say another word, you hold up your hand, a gentle tell to let you continue. “I could tell that she loves Luthor. That’s why she wants to help us stop him.”

Bruce is shaking his head, “I don’t understand, Y/N.”

You smile at Bruce and turn back to the apparitions in the temple. Two more figures enter the room. Two old women in grey loose tunics that flowed down to the cobbled floor. Luthor’s soulmate bows down to pick up her offering and hands it to them.

The scene continues silently and you lean in to whisper to Bruce, “She’s asking for their forgiveness because Luthor kidnapped one of their sisters a few years ago.”

Bruce’s brows furrow, connecting the dots in his head, realizing how Luthor has been able to do the unthinkable with the links. “He’s been planning this for years?”

“According to his soulmate, since he was 17. Ever since he found out about their link.” You suddenly had the urge to wrap your arms around Bruce as you continue to look into the temple.

Bruce rubs the small of your back. “I take it that he wasn’t very happy about the arrangement.”

“Ever the detective,” you tease but without heart.

You watch the scene continue. Luthor’s soulmate straightens up and addresses each of the sisters.

“I just want to know if Lex’s plan will work. If it’s possible that he can use the links’ power to alter destiny itself.”

Bruce grits his teeth. “So that’s his endgame.”

The Fate sisters turn to each other. The tallest and wisest one answers her, “Child, there is no such thing as destiny. Not the one you think of. The only real destiny is death. Even for those who think themselves immortal.”

You chuckle a little despite the atmosphere. It’s one of the things Bruce has loved about you. “Makes you grateful you don’t have to talk to them for League business.”

Bruce smirks.

“But I need your help! We have to stop him or more people are going to lose their links and get hurt. Don’t you want your sister back?”

The smaller sister, the compassionate one, touches her arm, “Our sister will survive. We’re not the ones to help you. You know this.” The sisters said their goodbyes and left the atrium. Luthor’s soulmate turns to you before the dream vanishes and returns you and Bruce to the Watchtower lobby.

You turn to Bruce and he’s already glaring at you. He’s already put two and two together and summed up the rest of your story.

You gulp before telling him, “She wants to help the Justice League stop Luthor but… in exchange for a big favor.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce wants to cut your link

_You turn to Bruce and he’s already glaring at you. He’s already put two and two together and summed up the rest of your story._

_You gulp before telling him, “She wants to help the Justice League stop Luthor but… in exchange for a big favor.”_

You slept early. Earlier than Bruce. You pace quickly in the black space as you wait for him to arrive, all the while grasping the replica of your phone. The screen’s brightness shines in the darkness like a floodlight.

When Bruce finally arrives, his bat suit blends in with the empty dreamscape and you don’t see him at first. But you hear his thoughts as he freely lets them loose, foregoing all trained inhibitions because he’s now with you. Then you find out that he already knows.

Your head whips around harshly and you’re glaring at him. “You read her message.”

Bruce stops mid step and stations himself on the spot. He’s feeling the air with both your subconscious in it. You know this. You expected it. Without ever having to tell you, you know he keeps watch of you outside of this safe haven. His diligence tripled after Luthor and Crane’s stunt.

He’s too far away to personally keep you safe and keeping you close would only put a larger target on your back. He knows you understand why. But now he’s trying to figure out why you’re on edge.

You shake your head. You can feel him filtering through your swimming thoughts.

“Did you find her?” you ask.

Ah. There it is. He realizes that this isn’t about the two of you. This is about Luthor and his soulmate. This is about you worrying after she had sent you that message. Thanking you for helping her get in touch with the Justice League and apologizing for all the trouble she’s caused. She also promised to keep Luthor in check as much as she could.

“No.”

“You have to find her, Bruce. What if she’s in danger?”

Bruce continues walking toward you. As he walks, the air shifts, and the space is slowly forming.

“Green Arrow saw her follow Luthor willingly,” he answers her.

You almost couldn’t believe it. When she asked them to take away Luthor’s memories of her, her resolve was unwavering. She was willing to give Luthor the life he’s always wanted even if it meant she’ll never be in it.

Bruce is standing next to you now, while the two of you are on a farm, under a big tree, and looking out at a big pile of ashes on the ground. He takes off his cowl. “We took care of Luthor’s labs and took all his research and artifacts connected to the soulmate links. They’re all in League custody. We also searched his past residences in case he kept something sentimental connected to her.”

That’s when you hear it in the air, the unspoken information that you’re standing where Luthor had grown up and where they had met. Bruce fills your subconscious with short notes about the ashes that had once been Luthor’s house. He keeps them short and factual to avoid overloading your emotions.

“And did he?” you ask.

Bruce purses his lips and doesn’t answer. He does it when he knows you won’t like hearing the answer. But you think he does it because he doesn’t like it either. He changes the dreamscape back to darkness.

“But he has his memories back?” you ask even though you already know the answer. It’s the only reason why she would follow him. That means Luthor has finally accepted her as his soulmate. But you need to hear it from Bruce to be sure, to be hopeful.

“Miss Martian reported an anomaly in his memory bank. It was well organized and clearly labeled--”

“A trap.”

“A distraction.” You stare at Bruce with a puzzled look. “Luthor’s brain was overwhelming. Miss Martian would have found it too taxing to verify each and every memory and thought. She had to trust that everything was labeled accurately.”

“And you let her,” you interrupt, “That means you already knew that Luthor was aware of the plan. He had a failsafe.”

Bruce hums to himself and you could feel his thoughts swimming around you before he speaks, “It had to be a single memory. Short enough to hide from a telepath but strong enough to incite every other memory he’s ever had.”

Bruce doesn’t say anymore but you stop feeling his buzzing subconscious in the air, no longer analyzing relentlessly, as if he’s figured it out.

“It was a memory of her, wasn’t it?” you blurt out. Bruce doesn’t respond. He’s not sure whether the answer will make you happy or not.

Instead of answering, he shifts the space into the batcave and walks toward his computer. But he doesn’t miss the twitch of your fingers and the way your knees lock in place once the space has fully formed.

“Maybe--,” you start to say but the screams, gunshot, and maniacal laughter in your head echo loudly. You want to be anywhere but here. You want to ask for a different space but there’s no need to say anymore because Bruce quickly shifts the surrounding into the Watchtower.

“I’m sorry,” he says as he walks back to you.

Bruce may relive his nightmares every night but not enough time has passed for you to forget what it was like to feel like you’re dying. You think no time will ever be enough to forget the guilt and sorrow you felt when you were dying in front of Bruce. His hopelessness and desperation. They were heavy in the air and it suffocated you, pushing down on your chest. It felt like Bruce’s mind was willing you to death.

Bruce holds your hand and squeezes it. You can feel his own dread weighing in the air. You don’t want that. There’s more than enough of it in here and out there. You try to cheer up while looking around the Watchtower.

“So all and all, everything turned out alright.” You sigh in relief, giving yourself time to dispel your own negative thoughts. When you turn to him, your smile is genuine, “I’m glad.” But he squeezes your hand again. “Oh!” you exclaim, taking your hand away to bring it to your face. You want to change the subject. “The Fate sister! Is she…”

Bruce purses his lips and narrows his eyes. He studies you for only a second before he sighs. “With her sisters,” he answers while he turns to the Watchtower screen. It turns on to show you a clip of the Fate sisters and their reunion. “The League wanted to hold her for questioning. So we can be better prepared next time someone targets the links. But she’s still a civilian so we let them go.”

You’re relieved to find him irritated. It’s very subtle. Narrowed eyes with pupils slightly moving side to side as he prevents himself from rolling his eyes. No doubt a mannerism he had in his younger years and Alfred had conditioned it out of him.

You snicker, “I’m sure her sisters were ecstatic. Cryptic but ecstatic.”

“They were… helpful.” Bruce takes a moment before he turns to you and plants a scene in the middle of the Watchtower lobby. “They let us keep the cauldron and the scissors.”

Bruce replays his memory of what happened at Luthor’s private lab where Luthor severed his link with his soulmate. You watch his soulmate beg for her memories and notice how she continued to caress him as they stole his. You hear and witness everything and your knees are suddenly weak but your soulmate holds you.

Bruce speaks as the scene dissolves in front of you. “Some links automatically stop once the soulmate’s meet. But they’re still tied to each other.”

Then, you feel it. A question hangs in the air and it’s so heavy you feel your muscles straining to keep you standing. With wide eyes and quivering lips, you turn to your soulmate. Bruce asks you something he’s wanted to ask you for the longest time. Ever since the first night, you appeared in his nightmare.

“Would you like to stop meeting here?”

You knew it was coming but you’re still stunned. No thought fills the air. He watches you closely to figure out your answer before he hears it. But he doesn’t. So he furrows his brows and his mouth curls down when he looks at the ground.

You know it’s not because he doesn’t want you. You know perfectly well why he’s asking if you want to sever your link. This is the dreamscape where your subconscious runs freely. There is no room for misunderstandings here.

Bruce’s voice is lower when he speaks again. “We have the means to cut our link and dream on our own again. No more nightmares, Y/N.”

You frown. You frown so deeply and your eyes water as you watch the lines on his brows grow more prominent and the way his eyes twitch as he stares hard at the stark grey floor. You reach out to touch his cheeks and make him turn to you. Your lips quiver when you speak and you hold him in your hands to keep him right where he is.

“There’ll always be nightmares, Bruce.” You lean forward until your forehead touches his and you close your eyes. “Whether it’s yours or mine, at least we’ll go through it together.”

Bruce opens his mouth to speak but his jaws are shaking and his teeth are clashing. Instead he kisses you on the forehead. His lips press firmly against your skin and too soon he pulls back.

“You shouldn’t have to,” he whispers.

You grit your own teeth and your tears are still falling. “No one should.”

You grip the hem of his cape and pull him close until he’s pressed against you. You clutch tightly, afraid he’ll disappear from your dreams, afraid he’s not real. But he is. He’s here and you feel it. You feel it when he wraps his arms around you and how his hands grip your shoulders. You feel it when he buries his face in your hair and lets out the shaky breath he’s been holding.

You let yourselves stay in this peaceful moment, without words and without thoughts. Until it’s broken by a familiar song. You throw your head back with a laugh, tears still in your eyes when you finally speak, “Rick Astley?!” And Bruce thinks he could never be more enamored by you than in this moment. “Is that your alarm?” you ask in disbelief.

He shakes his head and surprisingly he gives you a small smile and turns away slightly. “It’s my communicator at the manor. Dick changed it.”

You immediately stop laughing but you try to keep up a small smile as you disentangle yourselves. “So the work continues,” you tease and Bruce replies with a small nod. You can tell he’s composing himself because once he wakes up, he’s no longer just your soulmate but the dark knight of Gotham City. “You need a break.”

Bruce turns to you and finds you smiling impishly. He returns it with a smirk of his own. “I do.” His attention turns to the large monitor displaying the Justice League insignia. “Most likely, the League will force me to file for one sometime soon.”

You laugh and eye him curiously. “Where are you gonna go?”

Bruce looks at you, one eyebrow raised and there’s a subtle glint in his eyes. “Would you like to see the Watchtower in person?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The series is now complete! Thank you everyone for reading!


End file.
